Bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives at The Frontline Against Violent Crime
I.Reducing Violence through the Interdiction and Prevention of Firearms Trafficking
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- Reducing Violent Gang Crime
- Baltimore VCIT - Operation Tourniquet
- Pittsburgh VCIT - Northview Heights/Brighton Place Crips
- Richmond VCIT – Gilpin Court
I.Reducing Violence through the Interdiction and Prevention of Firearms TraffickingATF focuses on prohibiting access by individuals who cannot legally obtain a firearm at regulated retailers and secondary markets such as gun shows, flea markets, and the Internet. ATF’s statutory authority and long experience regulating the firearms industry, together with its unique technical/forensic capabilities, make ATF the Federal authority on illegal firearms trafficking and investigations. ATF traces the movement of firearms from legal to illegal commerce, from source area to market area, and from trafficker to triggerman. ATF agents, Industry Operations Investigators (IOIs), and Federal prosecutors work together in a source area to deliver a major impact on violent crime and gang violence in the respective market area, often thousands of miles away. These are often complex investigations targeting trafficking networks involving multiple sources, T-III interceptions, undercover surveillance and developing sources of information. Dismantling a gun trafficking organization wherever it operates, impacts the ability of criminals to threaten or harm our communities across the country. The ATF National Tracing Center (NTC) is the only Federal law enforcement entity that can trace firearms from their manufacture or importation through distribution to the point of initial retail sale. Firearms trace data shows geographic market areas where crime guns are recovered and source areas that provide firearms to those markets. Illegal firearms traffickers employ a variety of schemes to obtain firearms which include straw purchases (where a legal purchaser buys a firearm on behalf of, or at the direction of, a prohibited purchaser), illegal acquisitions at gun shows, burglaries of gun stores, and thefts of interstate shipments of firearms by criminal organizations. ATF’s firearms trafficking interdiction strategy deploys resources to specific localities where there is a high incidence of gang and gun violence. ATF’s Violent Crime Impact Team (VCIT) program, a vital IVRS component, is a particularly effective example of how focused law enforcement in violence-plagued, gang-infected communities reduces violent crime. Reducing Violent Gang Crime Since its creation as a bureau in 1972, ATF has established itself as a lead Federal agency in the investigation of violent gang-related crime. ATF has unique statutory authority over the “tools of the trade” that make gangs a threat to public safety. These tools include guns in the hands of felons and prohibited persons, and weapons and explosives used to further criminal activity. ATF targets and dismantles criminal organizations like Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Latin Kings, outlaw motorcycle gangs such as the Hells Angels and the Mongols, national gangs like the Crips and Bloods, Asian gangs, white supremacists, and innumerable neighborhood-based gangs that individually and collectively pose a great threat to the public safety. ATF’s anti-gang strategy includes enforcing Federal statutes such as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), the Hobbs Act and the Armed Career Criminal statute.
“Law enforcement officials in 34 jurisdictions report that the majority of gang-related crime is committed with firearms… Gang members are acquiring high-powered, military-style weapons and equipment, resulting in potentially lethal encounters with law enforcement officers, rival gang members, and innocent bystanders. Law enforcement officials in several regions nationwide report gang members in their jurisdiction are armed with military-style weapons, such as high-caliber semiautomatic rifles, semiautomatic variants of AK-47 assault rifles, grenades and body armor.” Source: The 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment
One of the signature programs within the national violent crime strategy is the VCIT program. The VCIT program was implemented in 2004 and focuses ATF’s unique investigative resources on identifying the urban areas experiencing the most violent crime and then partnering with other Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to dismantle these armed violent criminal organizations in selected areas and the “worst of the worst” operating within them. The selected areas will create a localized strategy and implementation plan and the VCIT activity will be measured with standardized metrics to ensure that ATF is effectively and efficiently focusing its unique investigative efforts where they are most needed. Baltimore VCIT - Operation Tourniquet The VCIT, composed of ATF agents and Baltimore City police officers, performs long-term investigations that root out entire organizations responsible for violent crime. On May 28, 2009, the Baltimore VCIT led a force of over 300 agents and officers from local, State and Federal law enforcement agencies in dozens of raids at locations throughout Baltimore City and various counties in Maryland and California, seizing drugs and firearms and arresting 40 people on Federal gang racketeering and drug conspiracy charges. The arrests followed a sweeping, year-long investigation into criminal activity of the Pasadena Denver Lanes (PDL) Bloods gang, which originated in Southern California, but operates in Baltimore through various subsets. The PDL Bloods gang operated in Maryland as an organized criminal enterprise with leaders and followers, who committed violent crimes, sold illegal drugs and paid dues to gang leaders in California. The suspected gang members engaged in attempted murders, assaults, robberies and drug trafficking, and were required to commit acts of violence to maintain membership, according to the indictment. On December 3, 2011, the final PDL member pleaded guilty and was sentenced for racketeering conspiracy. With this guilty plea, all 23 defendants charged in the indictment with participating in the racketeering enterprise activities of the PDL Bloods gang have been convicted. Pittsburgh VCIT - Northview Heights/Brighton Place Crips ATF perfected a comprehensive historical RICO investigation into these groups focusing on the violence they perpetrated. In February of 2010, a thirty-five (35) count indictment charged twenty-six (26) Crip members with Racketeering, Racketeering Conspiracy, Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering (VICAR) and other violent crimes, including Carjacking and Witness Intimidation. As of September 2011, all of these defendants have pled guilty and are facing sentencing ranges of up to 40 years incarceration. From the early 1990s through present, members of the Brighton Place Crips (BPC) and Northview Heights Crips (NVHC) criminal street gangs have maintained a base of operation within the City of Pittsburgh’s North Side and have allegedly committed numerous acts of violence to include over 50 homicides and over 150 non-fatal shootings. They engaged in firearms and narcotics trafficking as well as utilizing firearms in furtherance of the gang(s) enterprise. ATF is currently leveraging information acquired through proffers of some of these defendants to solve several homicide cases, including the murder of a five-year-old child and a double homicide that resulted from a home invasion. Information provided by the Pittsburg Bureau of Police (PBP) indicates a significant reduction in gang activity and firearms related violent crime on the North Side of Pittsburgh since these indictments and arrests. Richmond VCIT – Gilpin Court In Richmond, Virginia VCIT is part of Crime Sweep which is thirteen local, state, and Federal law enforcement and criminal justice stakeholders who coordinate efforts to reduce violence and improve the quality of life in Richmond. The Crime Sweep, through crime analysis, deploys respective agency resources throughout the city with focused individual missions tailored to each agency’s own mission, abilities and resources. Since its inception VCIT has fluidly adjusted its resources depending on the changing criminal environment. Over the years VCIT focused on select geographic areas for usually 12 month periods and arm commercial robberies. Most recently in January 2011, VCIT targeted the Gilpin Court housing project in Richmond while maintaining resources dedicated to robberies and the Richmond Police Department (RPD) Violent Crime Unit. VCIT joined with the Virginia Attorney General’s Office and their Gang Reduction and Intervention Program (GRIP) to address the violent crime that has become systemic in the Gilpin Court housing project. Gilpin Court is comprised of 781 low income subsidized housing units with an estimated 2,400 residents. In the calendar year of 2010 there were 24 shooting victims within Gilpin Court which is significantly higher than any other neighborhood within the city. The Gilpin VCIT enlisted tactics with a focus on disrupting the systemic violence associated with individuals and loosely confederated individuals that are involved in the use and/or distribution of illegal drugs and/or other inherently violent illegal enterprises through enforcement, prevention and education. Arguably the most significant tactics employed by the VCIT were: 1) identifying through human intelligence the most violent offenders in the area; 2) making home and street visits with these subjects; and 3) notifying them that VCIT was aware of their propensity for violence and that all legal means available would be employed to hold those responsible for past and future violent acts. As an alternative all were offered the services being provided by GRIP. As a result of the efforts of ATF and its partners the number of shooting victims in 2011 was reduced to five. “Confronting violent street gangs, international gangs operating within the United States and abroad, and cartels along the Southwest Border is a paramount concern for the United States.” Source: US Department of Justice Fiscal Years 2012-2016 Strategic Plan, page 17 In the 31 VCIT task force cities since 2004:
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